Mobile Computing, gardening and occassional fishing strategies

Some people spend their leisure time watching professional or college sports. I Spend mine fishing. I’m a species agnostic fisherman, if a fish is finning through the water I try to catch it.

There may be no better place to be a species agnostic fisherman than Southern California. In late spring or early fall I have four spots I get a line wet within 15 miles of my house in Escondido CA. If it’s summer, I rig up for catfish or bass at Dixon Lake, two miles from my freont door. I don’t mind the $5 parking fee Lake Dixon is owned by the City of Escondido and its Parks and Recreation Department does a great job of keeping the park and lake in great shape. And, it’s very family friendly.

After the first heat wave of the year trout fishing seizes here. That’s fine by me since I’m most interested in humble two pound catfish that cruise the lake and which aren’t particularly finicky when it comes to bait. What I like most about this neighborhood fishing hole is; I can park and begin fishing within ten minutes of my loading my rod and reel here at the house. When I say catfish aren’t as finicky as trout, I can and do get worms from my compost pile, or small chunks of chicken livers from my refrigerator and the channel cats like it just fine.

On warm evenings on Dixon Lake, the best place to tease up a whisker fish or two is Trout Cove. Apparently catfish are quick to takeover territory otherwise reserved for uppity trout.

Pendleton has relatively easy access and I believe is very under fished. With almost 0 miles of coastline that includes several lagoons and long stretch of sandy beaches where the Marine’s amphibious landing practice kick bait into the inner tidal zone, Pendleton seldom disappoints anglers who take the time to get permission from the US Fish and Wildlife Service to fish there. https://www.facebook.com/CPENgamewardens/?fref=nf

Before you throw that 11-foot surf wand into your car you need to know you have to supply the warden’s office with a copy of a valid driver’s license so that you can be vetted a an all-around fine fellow.

The Pendleton warden’s office can provide you with information you need to catch fish and what you need to gain access to the beach

There are two places on the Camp Pendleton coast with well deserved reputations for great fishing. The first is the Red Beach campground just north of the Las Pulgas Road off ramp on I-5.

The second area are a series of lagoons immediately north pf the Pendleton’s DelMar area.

Pendleton coastal fishing Is known for its inshore California halibut, perch and sand bass fisheries.

Lake O’Neal is another lesser known fishing hole at Pendleton. It’s loaded with pan fish and catfish. If you have a child you want to introduce to fishing, Lake O’Neil and Camp Pendleton could be the perfect choice for a fun, productive day outdoors.

You need to bring bait, tackle and sunscreen. If you fish Pendleton. And if you get the urge to sink a line in its lagoons, be prepared to march a long way from where you park your car to get to a place where you can cast.

So reach out to the federal wardens office at Pendleton and don’t to be too proud’t for get to ask where they think you should fish Then get ready to find excellent fishing. This one time lance corporal knows. Jim Forbes on 2July 2016. /x\

Gardening is my guilty pleasure but for the last two years burrowing rodents have harshed my earthy vibe.

Last year, I thought building a raised bed planter could forestall the terrestrial invaders, but I was wrong.

This year I added two more raised beds that had metal lath stapled to their bottoms. Then I filled each box with estate blended garden soil from the dirt store in nearby San Pasqual. I dumped about 900 pounds of vintage blended garden soil into each box.

That was just the first of several mistakes I made this year. Turns out when I was shoveling dirt into the new raised bed, I ripped out several staples that held the garden lath wire at the bottom of the box. I didn’t realize this until after I planted six heirloom tomatoes and planted two rows of corn I had started in small six pack planters. The corn was unmolested for two days before I notice a six inch tall plant wiggling in the evening breeze.

I know exactly what corn stalks waving in the breeze means. Damn burrowing rodents. To add insult to injury, the same evening I saw my corn stalks waving surrender, I noticed something very strange in my original raised bed. It had been savagely invaded by a large rodent,

I’ve not given up on gardening or on winning a war against gophers and squirrels, but I have some observations about my struggle.

First most of the gopher and vole remedies you see advertised in gardening magazines are totally useless.

Case in point solar powered sonic spikes. The two I purchased may have attracted rhythm m loving gophers beaus within 8 hours of my sticking the useless contraptions in the ground I notice a gopher hole right next to the spike. I had a similar results with a wind powered clacker.

I now have a mental image of two gophers curled up around the spikes an clackers, grooving to the music of my defeat, laughing at me in little tinny gopher voices.

A few weeks ago I thought simply “If you want war, you got it”. Then I called a pest control service who trapped squirrels and killed gophers. Within10 days, the number of squirrels scampering arcos my yard dropped from ten to two.. And I haven’t seen a new gopher hole in any of my three raised beds.

It could be a pyrrhic victory since after the expense of the pest control service, plus my own rodent remedies the cost of growing big honking heirloom tomatoes is probably four times greater than hat I would pay for them at any of the four local farm stands. the really bad news, burrowing rodents have killed seven avocado trees, one Avalon peach and two hybrid apricots.

The really good news is I that one of the Christmas gifts I received last year was a $100 gift card at my favorite local nursery, El Plantio, here in Escondido.

The other cheery thing about living near the intersection of a city and wildlands is that the squirrels and gophers have attracted natural predators.

And, the image of a California long-tailed weasel hauling off a screaming gopher, or a hawk soaring skyward with a dead squirrel in its talon is more than OK with me.

And as I learned a long time ago in a place called Khe Sanh, like a home, a garden is where you dig it.—Jim Forbes on 25 May, 2016.

I believe in guilty pleasures and have reached the point in my life where I’m not above a little “whim clicking*” on Amazon or jumping on my fanciful three-wheeled scooter to blow the garden dirt from my cutoffs and go putt putting out to any of the three farm stands that are within 15 miles of my house here in avocado-infested Escondido.

I have a long history with motor cycles going ack to 1964 when I bought my first bike, a sporty Honda 50cc. Since then I’ve owned a succession of bikes that I’ve used to break writer’s blocks or enjoy a gorgeous Spring evenings by riding to the nearest fishing hole.

My current bike is very different than anything I’ve owned or ridden before. It’s an upmarket Vespa called a Piaggio MP3 400. I love it a lot but don’t use it enough to keep the battery fully charged.

I went out for a putt putt east to the next town this evening, thinking 60 minutes at 4,000 RPM would bring my battery up enough so tt would start on Tuesday, when I have an appointment at the VA in Oceanside CA to be get a new pair of glasses.

Tonight’s trip was a blast. Although my bike is technically a scooter, it has a 400cc,four-stroke, engine that’s strong enough to haul my butt up and over the mountain road to Valley Center. Before leaving, I threw my cloth market bag into my bike’s storage compartment, anticipating buying some locally grown strawberries and oranges for the larder.

I may have gone slightly overboard at the farm store. I forked over $3.50 for two oranges, a large container of strawberries, and splurged another buck on two plump cherimoyas.

It all fit nicely in my cloth Trader Joes reusable bag which I sportily hung from the curved bag hook on the bike.

There’s never a shortage of weekend warriors headed home from the casinos in Valley Center on Harleys. After being passed by a herd thundering up the hill towards home, I twisted up more power and tucked into the end of the procession.

At the first stop light on my way home, a guy on a really nice new Harley looked over and laughed. When the light changed, I throttled up, the front wheesl lifted, and I smiled.

Sailing into my lustrous years, and looking back at the receding shoreline of my home town in Southern California I’m struck by the images of my youth.

Foremost among these area a series of homes and other structures built using material that was at hand on parcels, or in the nearby vacant fields of an ancient watercourse scoured by the San Gabriel River in Azusa, California.

My mother came to Azusa in 1918. All my life, I’ve been fortunate to see the growth of my home town through her eyes. Azusa wasn’t really laid out until about 1899 and aside from the occasional live oak that used gnarly roots to sustain itself in the mostly sandy alluvial soil, the only abundant local building material was river stone, smoothed round by countless eons of tumbling in the San Gabriel Riverbed.

Watching me dig a garden and build a mound of stones to use as a garden edging in the mid 1950’s, my grandfather quipped “Nice crop of Azusa potatoes, boy.”

It was a very nice three by four foot mound too.

I have never forgotten how many stones I pulled out of the ground for that first garden but it took me about five years—after I had newspaper delivery route, ton pay close attention to the eight or nine stone houses in Azusa, I pedaled past on my three mile wide daily herald Examiner paper route .

Back then, the homes seemed distinctive and ageless. Many of the stone homes I admired as a kid, are still standing and have passed through several generations of Azusa families.

I’ve always been curious about those homes—all but one of which are north of highway 66, and many others near the first site of Azusa’s Saint Francis catholic church.

Curiosity is a good trait in a reporter and I started chipping into the stories of those stone homes while writing for daily newspaper in West Covina, CA. I didn’t take me long to discover that the homes were built by immigrant Italian stone workers working on several dams on the San Gabriel river in Azusa Canyon. Azusa has a temperate climate, although it’s subject to blast furnace heat waves in the early fall. In addition to being free and commonly available, river stone homes are cool when outside temps skyrocket into triple digits, and can be easily heated with a simple fireplace in the winter.

There are two great example of stone construction homes in and near Azusa. The first is a home in the 500 block of West Third Street, just west of the southbound Vernon Avenue on the 210 Freeway—which is conveniently near the home my father built for his family.

The prettiest example; however is an Old Catholic church in Irwindale, which was built by its parishioners using river stone. See the below.

I suppose Azusa’s stone homes would be classified as bungalows—most are less than 1,000 SF. But, because of the effort and individualistic spirit that went into their construction, I think of them as vanguards of the build your home for your family craftsman movement that swept Los Angeles Country prior to World War II.

Many of Azusa’s stone built houses today are surrounded by chain link fencing with sugary fragment honey suckle twining through the fence. Not surprisingly, many of the homes are protected by Chihuahuas who rest on front porches, keeping an unblinking eye on the coming and goings nearby.

Currently there is a preservation movement sweeping Southern California. I sincerely hope that my home town’s stone homes would be included if the movement ever swept east of the San Gabriel River.

I’ve always been proud to be an Azusa boy descended from two families that settled there within 25 years of the town’s founding. And in my mind’s eye, I can picture myself sitting on the front porch of a stone house somewhere east of highway 39 and north of the tracks--Chihuahua by my side. Jim Forbes on January 24, 2016.

“Crisis Hotline, Veterans, Press 1” may be one of the most powerful documentaries ever produced and aired.

This HBO documentary is on all-hands-on-deck look at the Veteran’s Administrations Crisis hotline. Staffed by up to 100 professionals per eight-hour shift and available to veterans on a 24/7 basis, the national crisis call center is in Northern New York. This film’s Point of View focuses on the VA’s responding operators’ interaction with Veterans who may be suicidal.

Sky-rocketing PTSD rates and the corresponding increased suicides in this country’s veteran population is a compelling story by itself. But this documentary puts you alongside the responding operator as they assesses a situation, reinforce a veteran’s self-worth or discuss the consequences of their suicide and deals with a suicidal veteran in real time.

The VA’s Crisis Center call center receives 22,000 inbound calls a month and since its inception in 2007, it’s handled more than 900,000 calls from veterans in crisis or their family members. Because of the rapid redeployment tempo associated with current conflicts (it’s not uncommon for some soldiers serving four-year enlistments to deploy to combat zones more than two times and some career soldiers and Marines have seen active combat over five deployments), PTSD and its lasting effects – the inability to find lasting jobs, plus alcoholism, drug addiction and other conditions) are now recognized as a significant problem for most combat vets.

In response to the flood of PTSD patients, the VA has opened clinics in many US cities with significant veteran populations

Crisis hotline deals with Issues of patient confidentiality by only showing and filming the operator during the call. Deft camera work heightens the drama by showing the Messaging traffic between the operator and their supervisor. It’s the messaging traffic—which confirms calls to emergency service providers and in-route times that really attenuates this documentary.

The real stars of this HBO documentary are the VA’s Crisis call center operators who have the presence of mind and attention to detail to hear background sound such as the noise of a pistol’s magazine being loaded or unloaded or a veteran’s tone of voice and the seriousness of his intent to kill themselves. Watch this documentary and you’ll understand that there really are heroes among us and that some of them work for the Veterans’ Administration at a fully technology evolved call center in upstate New York

Crisis Hotline, Veterans, Press 1, is in HBO’s current line up of shows. It can also be streamed at any time from HBOGo.com. If you know of a veteran who may be in crisis, please have them call the VA’s hotline at 800-273-8255 and immediately press 1.—Jim Forbes on November 20,2015.

Disclosure: I am a veteran and have benefitted from the VA’s PTSD programs.

If you fish but think the only time you may catch 50 oto 60 pounds of of tuna stewks in one outing is in your dreams. You’re wrong

the waning weeks of summer has seen record setting tuna catches by the party boat fleets here in San Diego.

Many of the all-day boats have tied up at the end of the day with mixed limits of yellowfin tuna, yellowtail and Dorado(aka Mahi mahi) caught not 100 miles offshore, but close enough to the San Diego Coast tha even the three quarter day boats are occassionally tying into tasty tuna schools..

The all day party boats have the tuna schools dialed in, so fishermen spend less time taking boat excursions and more time getting and keeping their lines and live bait wet.

two of my favorite party boats, the Malhini and the Producer, berthed at H&M Landing in San Diego Bay with onw tuna per rod and almost one dorado per fisherman.

the reason una party boats have been doing so well, this late in the season is the exceptionally. warm sea temperatures and abundant schools of bait here on the Southern California coast the favorable conditions are not limited to San Diego and [party boats based further north and fishing Catalina and San Clemente Island are also reporting exceptionally large catch numbers.

Given current catch rates, some anglers are going back to their cars with 80 pounds or more of fish.

The price of deep sea fishing out of SanDiego starts at about $45 for a half-day trip fishing the edges of the kelp beds, or beyond and tops out at aroundand goes to $250 for overnight trips. Longer trips are more expensive. the fee for most trips includes Mexican offshore fishing permits and tackle can be rented on the boats for the fishing gear challenged.

the incursion of as many as five hobbyist drones in and near the Cajon pass fire this week in Southern California continues to highlight the potential catastrophic damage unauthorized and unregulated flights of camera carrying hobbyist drones can cause. Aerial suppression of wildfires has been temporarily suspended here in Southern California on three active fires so far this summer. the most recent incident involved up to five separate drones believed by incident commanders to be carrying cameras, capturing images of .water dropping helicopters and fixed-wing attack aircraft dropping fire retardant on the Cajon Pass conflagration. With traffic on I-15 freeway stopped, the blaze arched over the freeway, and set several cars and trucks on fire.

All aerial firefighting was suspended for about one-half hour when a quadcopter drone was piloted into the area where helicopters and fixed wing fire retardant bombers were operating The suspension of aerial attack fire fighting lead to the loss of several cars and one big rig truck and trailer combination, according to the San Bernardino County Fire Department. With drones in the active flight path, at least one helo dropped the contents of its water bucket on a burning car and a twin engined water bomber dropped its retardant load on the fire front near the cars trapped by the fire.

Shortly thereafter the fire’s air attack supervisor ordered that the helos and bombers return to a nearby base, which resulted in a 20 to 30 minute suspension of aerial firefighting flights As the helos departed for bases in nearby San Bernardino, two of the dones were photographed following the aircraft. Flying to close to a helo with a tail rotor in turbulent air can be risky. if a collision between the drone and helo occurs and damages the tail rotor, the helicopter spins out of control and crashes. the continued appearance of unregulated hobbyist drones over any event that also involves emergency aircraft support points to the need to bring order to this unregulated and dangerous activity. There are a couple of potential solutions: Equip all drones with emergency transponders that broadcasts ownership and physical location on electronic interrogation or continuously; Or,require drone enthusiasts to register and display unique identification numbers on their aircraft. the potential for a catastrophic mid air collision between aerial firefighting assets and hobbyist drones trying to get newsworthy footage of wildfire suppression is a genuine risk. that risk will increase as Southern California faces its most explosive fire season in recent history.--Jim Forbes on July 20, 2015. mandatory disclosure: I live in an area that has been threatened by three wildfires in the last 12 years. mu\y home sits directly in the path between the site of previous wildfires and the Palomar Air Attack base in Ramona, CA.

ONe of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve had in life has been being Godfather to a young man who is a kindred soul.

Lesson number 1; fishing requires patience and very cool dark glasses and sometims means you don't catch any trouties

His name is Alistair James Young but to me he’s always been “AJ.”. My godson doesn’t get the not so subtle reference to driving fast (think stock car racer “AJ Foyt) but as he’s grown older the nickname has come to suit him like a tailored fire-proof race car driver’s suit). and due o a series of legendary incidents not involving tickets, AJ’s nickname has morphed into “Skippy the Road Warrior.”

Being Skippy’s god father let me channel my inner Huck Finn. I’ve introduced him to: fishing and the concept that sometimes all you do is catch fresh water lake weeds; the joy of running slightly amuck on a speeding ATVgoing up a mountain; plus the manly study of free oxygen reactions.I’ve also had long deep dive conversations about automobiles with the boy.

but one of the most enjoyable things I’ve done happened earlier this year -- his senior high school exploratory trips to college campuses.

AJ on the right in front of my college Prep campus at Las Pulgas aboard Camp Pendleton.

Alistair has an astounding 4.2 GPA and wanted to visit San Diego State University. So off we went to that school for a walk around its hilly campus. the boy wanted to poke around the college but after touring the school’s engineering department he seemed to be very interested in the school’s gym .I took only a few minutes, but I eventually I remembered seeing a sign at the entrance to the gym that read “Women's Volleyball Tryouts” So that’s where I looked for the boy.

As a Godfather, I anxiously awaited as a variety of colleges and universities examined and processed his admission application.It was hard not to press AJ to see if he’s heard from any college. Despite his extremely high GP and sucess in AP classes AJ didn’t get an admitted to either of the two Cal Poly campi. But he did get an acceptance package from California State University, Long Beach.

My godson’ admission to Cal State Long beach comes with a silver lining; he has $19,000 scholarship that covers dorm fees, a food plan, tuition, books and a small transportation allotment.

Alistair graduates from high school in two weeks and looking back 18 years I've had an incredible experience being his Godfather. The takeaway: bonding with a kindred young soul, keeps you young, laughing and helps you remember the adventures in your life that stood out, and how important having a non-blood related, older friend is in learning to negotiate the twists and turns of adolescence.

So, Alistair James, even though you’ll be knee deep in mechanical engineering studies, you know how to reach me and can continue to count on me for the occasional practical joke, home cooked meal and high speed internet during your visits as well asrespite from Dorm life. After all, I’m only 85 minutes down the 405. A wistful Jim Forbes on May 17, 2015.

I live in a county with several dog parks. Dog park adventures have become a regular part of my life with my new dog, a long legged totally tan sprinter that is the fastest dog I”ve ever had in my household.

Her name is Sammie and she’s my second rescue from the Escondido campus of the San Diego Humane Society-- which has become my favorite charity in retirement. This dog is quite unusual-- she’s a mix of wire hair fox terrier and whippet. Sammie’s most favorite thing in the world is going to the dog park, When she sees her pink leash come out and hears me ask “ Want to go the Park,”, she goes to the sliding glass door in my office and waits patiently to be hooked up.

Whippets are English site hounds developed by breeding italian greyhounds to wirehaired fox terriers. the breed standard suggests whippets should be smooth coated and every one I’ve seen at the dog park is exactly that. but not my Sammie. At this time, her coat is wirehaired mess with a stand-up fringe of neck hair that’s quite distinctive. My dog definitely needs to be groomed, but she’s not keen on being any where near a pair of clippers.

My 6X a week dog park adventures help me fully understand why dogs are defined as “pack animals.” the first thing Sammie does at the park is look and sniff out her dog buddies and then begin to sort herself out within a pack.

Then the fun begins. Apparently, dogs remember which pack members like to run and which dogs likes to engage in puppy grabass games. Sammie is popular with her pack buddies because she does both without being overly aggressive.

But there is one activity at the Dog Park where Sammie is super competitive; running flat out along the inside of the fence that marks the half-acre plot reserved for small dogs, weighing 25 pounds or less.

Apparently some dogs are born competitors. Sammie, for example, delights in starting her buddies out with a fast gallop. then the fun begins. Without fail, one of the three terriers that are members of her early evening pack will try to accelerate past my mixed whippet, something my dog finds objectionable, Her response is to shift into hyper drive.Within seconds, six dogs are making high speed banked turns on a self-defined course.

One of the things I really love about the dog park experience are the kids who bring their pets. When the racing begins it’s not uncommon to see and hear six to eight year olds cheering their speedy terriers, fleet footed chihuahuas, stumpy legged corgis or bossy poodles as they go racing around the enclosure.

And any dog who jumps over another dog to get in front of another pup is loudly booed as a “cheater dog.”

Saammie the cheater racing dog sniffinf a cokapoo dog park buddy.

My Sammie is a known “cheater dog” at the local dog park.I wouldn’t change one thing about her.

I actually have two dogs, “Sammie” and “LaVida,” a palomino color patterned Chihuahua rescue from Escondido campus of the San Diego Humane Society.

LaVida the chick chihuahua on the left.

I’ve evolved into a dog person because of Retirement dog 1.0, a Chihuahua named “Perro” who was about nine years old when I met him as a volunteer dog walker during the first of several firestorms that raced through Northern San Diego County several years ago.I was about one year post stroke when Perro came into my life. He was the best stroke rehab buddy anyone could wish for.

So who rescued who? My life was changed by amn older Chihuahua thst made his den on my bed. But Perro did have a vice.He loved the interaction with other dogs at the dog park.

I still think of Perro and when I go to the shelter and see the tile memorializing the little dude and my mother, Lois Sele, I smile.

Dog Parks are cheap theater as well as venues to scope out other breeds.

But most importantly, a tired dog is a happy dog.--Jim Forbes on January 25/2015.

A new study that by the Veterans’ Administration health care system is tracking the overall health of up to one million veterans in a large survey of its members called Million Veteran Program.

Started in 2011, about 25 percent of the targeted number have already began participation in the program.

VA healthcare is one of the largest health care providers in the US, and fueled by the economic meltdown of 2000, the number of former servicemen and women who use the VA for primary healthcare has grown dramatically.

It’s not uncommon for healthcare providers to collect data on the overall health of its members, but the VA study goes far beyond what other organizations collect. As a part of the intake process, VA medical clerks, nurses and doctors ask veterans if they’re willing to participate,and discuss how results will be used to help other vets.

Two of the distinguishing features of the VA’s Million Veteran Survey are: blood drawn for genetic testing; And, the VA often has access to the veteran’s service medical records (which can help to identify medical issues that may have started while the veteran was on active duty)

the Million Veteran Program is now being rolled out in various regions, but initial survey results have already been published. Almost half of all participating vets have hypertension and high cholesterol, About 40 percent have hearing problems.More than one-third have depression and more than one-third have arthritis (but not osteo or rheumatoid arthritis).

The oldest participants in the VA Million Veteran Program are older than 100.

Individual veterans participating the VA’s program need only to fill out the questionnaire and mail it to a data collection center.

participants are still being added to the program and there has been no definitive results linked to Agent Orange exposure or Gulf War syndrome.

VA healthcare operates regional hospitals and local clinics.

The Million Veteran Program has the potential to shape the services and depth of care the Veterans Healthcare system provides aging vets of previous conflict and recent vets alike.The genetic component of the program will be used to research the causes of diseases and the development of new drugs and related treatment programs --Jim Forbes on 10/29/2014.

(mandatory disclosure: I am a disaabled veteran and enrolled in MVP as soon as it was offered.)